As a result, the likes of CHI, Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners,
VCCP, WCRS and Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy have dominated Campaign's
new-business league. DDB London, Cheethambell JWT and Abbott Mead
Vickers BBDO are the only network agencies to feature in the table so
far this year.

So why are network agencies so regularly beaten by their domestic rivals
on domestic accounts? Are local accounts no longer important to the
networks?

Nothing could be further from the truth, McCann Erickson's president for
Europe, the Middle East and Africa and group chairman for UK and
Ireland, Rupert Howell, argues. When he set about turning around McCann
Erickson London, one of his first missions was to attract domestic
accounts. He's made a good start, bringing the Co-op, Sharwood's, Bisto
and Jammie Dodgers to the agency.

"The optimum mix is reckoned to be 50/50 international/local in a
network agency," he says. "It gives you your local identity, which
matters when hiring local talent."

Few networks boast such an even split, though: McCann's ratio is more
like 70/30.

Lorna Tilbian, a senior analyst at Numis Securities, believes it is
because local agencies are more focused on servicing domestic clients
that they are winning the lion's share of the business. "When creative
guys get fed up with the big internationals and set up their own
agencies, the first people they target are the big domestics. They can
handle those accounts because they're at home. These agencies appeal to
the client because the guy whose name is on the brass plate is their
account handler," she says.

This has proved a great selling point for the highest-profile
independents such as CHI, which won the hotly contested £35
million Argos account this year. Such direct access to the agency's
founders is also helping to attract European business: Toyota handed CHI
the launch of the Aygo and a slice of pan-European work for the Corolla
at the expense of the car manufacturer's global agency of record,
Saatchi & Saatchi.

But it's not just about getting access to the names above the door:
There is a growing perception that networks are distracted by
international pressures.

Carl Nield, the interim head of brand marketing at Argos, says: "We are
a local business and the benefits of a network agency are less relevant
to Argos. CHI does not have the distraction that running a network
agency brings."

Domestic accounts bring smaller financial rewards; add to that pressure
from the network to focus on higher-billing global accounts, and the
tendency for network shops to concentrate their energies on global
business is natural. As Andrew Melsom, Agency Insight's senior partner,
says: "There's a subterranean suggestion that at large global network
agencies you're a pudding, but not the main course."

"Because of the talent, scale and depth of experience in our management
team, we don't have to split our focus between our international and
domestic business. Other network agencies may focus on network referrals
at the expense of domestic clients. As ever, if you focus your attention
in one place, another area slips. We've retained pieces of business such
as Sainsbury's,BT, Dulux and the BBC because we're not trying to do an
'either/or' strategy.

"We have a strong domestic profile and, at the same time, have developed
our international credentials. We have invested in our talent base, so
we can be in both places at the same time."

INTERMEDIARY - Stuart Pocock, partner, Agency Assessments

"Sometimes the creative work at network agencies doesn't quite cut it.
If that happens, it can expose the normal problems that most agencies
have, such as poor account handling.

"Network agencies sometimes wheel out the big guns for a pitch, but when
the business gets taken in, it's a more junior team that runs it. At a
local agency, the owners are more connected with that business as they
don't get distracted by international business. They can also be more
flexible on money."

CLIENT - Andrew Marsden, marketing director, Britvic

"In theory, there shouldn't be any difference between local agencies and
networks - they should all be working just as hard for their local
clients. You should only ever see added value from a network agency,
because they are able to leverage network resources.

"In practice, however, you don't often see it. Network agencies have all
the hassle of administrative structures, so clients rarely see the
benefits.

"A network agency should be a local agency plus; very often, they're a
local agency minus.

"While there should be economies of scale at network agencies, dealing
with the network can take up the bulk of a senior agency person's
time."

"If you're independent and it's your money, you're more hungry - it's
that drive which is difficult to replicate. No network business is given
to you, so new business is the only thing that makes you successful.

"There are fewer politics and fewer agendas as you don't have to worry
about Europe versus London versus America.

"It's a group of people who like working together and get on with it.
It's easier to get the brightest young people to work for you, unless
they have ambitions to do the international thing."